Pehr Kalm

In 1747, he was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to travel to the North American colonies in order to bring back seeds and plants that might be useful to agriculture.

[4] Kalm did field research in Sweden, Russia, and Ukraine from 1742 to 1746, when he was appointed docent of natural history and economics at the Royal Academy of Turku.

That same year, he was also appointed by Linnaeus and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (of which he had been a member since 1745) to travel to North America to find seeds and plants that might prove useful for agriculture or industry.

In particular, they wanted him to bring back the red mulberry in the hope of starting a silk industry in Finland (which was then an integral part of Sweden).

On his journey from Sweden to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Kalm spent six months in England, where he met many of the important botanists of the day.

A picture commonly believed to portray Kalm, although some modern-day historians have suggested it may be of Kalm's colleague Pehr Gadd. [ 1 ] Painted by Johan Georg Geitel , 1764.
Illustration of Cohoes Falls , from the book En Resa til Norra America by Pehr Kalm